Playlist: Halloween

Halloween music is the most degraded of all holiday musics: while every artist on earth records Christmas songs, from the straightforward to the ironic to the permissibly sentimental, few try their hand at Halloween. It’s strange, given that it’s arguably a better holiday for rock and roll—much of David Bowie’s career has been seemed to operate on the same principles of dress-up and provocation. Here are eight Halloween songs to throw in your bag along with the Smarties and candy corns. We should warn you at the outset, though: there will be no “Monster Mash” on this list.

Sonic Youth, “Hallowe’en” (1985)

You could make a case that “Bad Moon Rising,” the album on which this song appears, is a concept album about the holiday: there’s another called “Ghost Bitch,” and the cover shows a scarecrow topped by a flaming pumpkin. Sonic Youth completists will note that “Hallowe’en” did not appear on the original LP, and that it was added to the album for a British CD release.

The Who, “Disguises” (1966)

The Who was not the first rock band to recognize that a disguise could be a tool of romantic deception, but they recognized it with more power, subtlety, and humor than most. In the song, the girl that the narrator loves hides from him by assuming the identity of a traffic cop and a flower bed.

Bruce Springsteen, “Brilliant Disguise” (1987)

Like the Who’s song, this sketches out another case of emotional deception, though in the case the costume looks exactly like the original woman, minus love.

Bo Diddley, “Bo Meets the Monster” (1958)

As we said in the introduction, there will be no “Monster Mash” on this list. But there will be this campy bit of early rock and roll, complete with sound effects. It’s instructive for a number of reasons, not the least of which is to illustrate how well-formed Bo Diddley was as a comic character. The monster here, of course, is the famous one-eyed purple people eater.

Otis Redding, “Trick or Treat” (1967)

Otis doesn’t want to wait until Halloween to find out if it’s trick or treat. That seems fair. This song gets extra points for the fantastic, minimalist fan-created video.

R. Dean Taylor, “There’s a Ghost in My House” (1967)

Taylor was one of the rare white (not to mention Canadian) artists signed to Motown, and this bit of garage-soul, co-written by Holland/Dozier/Holland, was not a hit upon its original release, but helped lead the Northern Soul revival in Britain in the mid-seventies. Graham Parker has covered it, superbly, as has The Fall.

Shakira, “Costume Makes the Clown” (2005)

Consider that the message here—dress up, but at your own risk, given the ways that it might erode identity—comes from a woman who always seems like she’s wearing a costume.

Lambert, Hendricks, and Ross, “Halloween Spooks” (1962)

There’s nothing scarier than vocalese.

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